WotLK Frost DK PvP...2h or DW and why?

[succmytusks]

Okay so I've been playing DK on Lordaeron, I'm still new to Lich King, but I've been playing the class for a good while, I know how the class works. I play mostly Blood, some Unholy, and then I also dip into Frost, cause I like to mix it up and they're all fun specs so why not?

What I must know is why people use DW over 2h for Frost so often. I see all these builds use DW but none explain why they DW, and if I see some kinda reasoning, (in the replies, there's nothing in the actual guide saying) it goes like, "if u don't DW ur ******ed hahahaha", and then i see somebody say dual wield has a higher hit cap or something and that's it. Wow man, thanks for clarifying...

So I get that with dual wield, sure, you can have two Runeforges,and yes, the Killing Machine procs...I've played DW frost in a later expansion, for reasons relating to that expansion. But should you REALLY have to spend six talent points (which could go elsewhere!) JUST to be able to hit Frost Strike, Oblit, etc with your off-hand weapon? I don't see why. And plus, with equal gs/ilvl weps, you'd get more stats from a 2h compared to 2 1h's, from what I've seen.

So tell me, what's the big deal about dual-wielding, (PvP)?

Sorry for long af post.

[Multisnipe]

You basically answered your own question.

Do not underestimate the powers of Double Runeforge on both weapons (Razorice is a must + Fallen Crusader = dream)
Killing machine procs (you get absolute crap procs with 2h, have fun tickling people with frost strike)
For 6 points, it is damn well worth it.

Also being able to hit with offhand on every one of your strikes scales with your other talents with crit bonuses. Doesn't matter if you play PvE or PvP, you will also get 3% hit from dual wielding, allowing you to focus on other stats.

In PvP frost strikes deal a significant amount of your damage, if not the highest. The damage from Threat of Thassarian and a second runeforge (You can have almost 100% uptime on fallen crusader - 15% strength if you have melee uptime), coupled with 3x more frequent killing machine procs is much more deadly.

It seems like you just want to hit hard; and even with 2hander you will not even come close to dual wield.

You are free to do as you like; but it is quite obvious on Wotlk that Frost is intended to be dual wielded.

Ask a PvE frost dk the same question. Their answer will be similar, if not the same.

Also, in frost pvp if you follow a frost PvE rotation then you are also screwed because obliterate is easily disrupted if the target cleanses diseases. Also you will need to use chains of ice extremely often, lowering the frequency of obliterate immensely. Basically in PvP frost, all you have to do to do mad damage is get frost fever on the target, and go ham with frost strike crits. You also play in unholy presence which boosts the speed of BOTH your weapons which obviously gives you more runeforging procs right?

[Zedarus]

With equal iLvl weapons, I'd estimate dualwield is raw +10% damage to frost strike (not including higher crit rate)

You also have better runic power generation with dualwield because you will consume Scent of Blood procs faster.

Frost 2h can be played, especially if your 2h is much better than alternative dualwield weapons. (I used to play frost 2h on Deathwing for quite long time because damage was just plain bugged, so it did considerably more damage than supposed)

I'd estimate 284 iLvl 2h > 264 dualwield for pvp but you can get 271 Havoc's Call for free anyways.

[succmytusks]

Thanks for the detailed repliesI forgot about the double runeforge procs and didn't even realize the faster consumption of scent of blood procs, due to double weps, durr.

[dreddman]

2h for bgs, dw for arenas

[Jakkre]

I used to multibox 4 frost dks. All full wrathful geared with equal gear.
I did some testing by using on 3 DKs the wrathful two hand weapon and on one DK the wrathful dual wield weapon.
I run several BGs like this and the dual wield DK did always slightly less dmg than the others.
I guess the reason for this is that howling blast hits a bit harder with two hand because 2h has better passive stats also 4 DKs kill opponents in 2-3 hits so there is less time for KM and runeforge procs. Additional i think that on a dual wield auto attack the main hand strikes first and then it takes some time until the offhand is activated. Means when u have very short uptime on a opponents two hand does a single hard hitting strike while dual- wield hits only with the main hand.

Consequently also as single player, two hand frost can deal more dmg when u have a howling blast build and only a short uptime on opponents. That should be the case in large scale battles such as AV and IoC.
For Arena, duels, etc, i would always use dual wield.

[taralej]

2H Frost was nerfed time and again, pushing the spec towards DW. That's basic WotLK knowledge.

The clear answer is DW.